Windy Westcoast Weekend: Part 1

Friday I slept. I may have woken up for food every now and again but for the vast majority I was truly unconscious. Now you think that would mean I would have little to report but oh no I can make paragraph up or two about pretty much anything. My inner ear infection that I mentioned a while back still hasn't completely cleared up. I'm getting to the point now that I don't believe it is an infection. The only symptom of it is this dizziness when I'm in bed. It has got to the point now where I have sort of gotten used to it and it no longer wakes me up when I turn over at night. What it does do is intrude into my dreams.

It is very bizarre. Basically I have had quite a few dreams now where I'm going along perfectly normally and I presume that at that point I must roll over in my sleep and in my dream I get dizzy. On Friday, my day of sleep, I must have been especially fidgety as I recall fairly well a dream where I spent the whole time feeling very thick headed as I do when this vertigo hits me when I'm awake. But enough of my wobbly night time adventures.

One other note worthy thing about Friday was it was the last day of April and my month of vegetarianism came to and end. I have to say that I have failed at this challenge more than any of the others, I ate meat several times during the month for one reason or another but one thing that I didn't do was eat any meat at home. I said going into that I would be sensible about it, that I would try and do my best unless I thought it was having a negative impact on me. Generally I felt great the whole month and the times when I did eat meat due to feeling tired was more to do with me not being sensible with the food I ate as opposed to actually the vegetable diet itself. I'm happy to be able to eat meat guilt free again but something I have taken form this is an appreciation of vegetarian dishes and will definitely be including them in meals that I regularly cook.

As of yet I have not come up with anything for May but I'll let you know if I do.

It was Vancouver International Marathon weekend here and on Saturday morning I had volunteered to help out on the BC athletics stand down at the Expo. My job was thankfully simple and all I had to do was hand out leaflets about upcoming races and try and promote PRR as much as I could. It was a good time actually, Susan and Carol were also there and if the questions got to hard the Maurice who works for BC Athletics was on hand to step in and take over. Our stand was well positioned for people watching as runners filed past queuing up to get the race packets. There was such a diverse bunch of people taking part it was great to see, it really did show that people of all ages, gender, race, weight and hair length and colour can be runners.

Another plus was the freebies being handed out. Having got a free coffee and muffin from the McDonald's stand on the way in, I also managed to snag a chocolate bar, several energy chews, a bunch of Advil (Score!) some wrist head pad things and some menstrual cramp heat pads, that will teach me to grab things without paying attention, I did wonder why I got an odd look from that stand. Another big plus was that the stand next to us was for the Scotiabank Half Marathon June. They were offering a $15 discount if you signed up there and then which was a bit of a bargain so I'm now signed up for that.

Throughout the morning two things were keeping my mind occupied. The first was trying not to cave and sign up for the half marathon the next morning, the late registration booth was just across from us. Not signing up for the half was made easier by the $90 + $10 sign up fee but was made harder by everyone around me getting there numbers and getting excited about the run, I did manage to stop myself though.

The second was getting updates from Mike about how Ellie was doing in her first ever 100k race. That's right I said 100k, not a typo of adding an extra zero, 62 miles of race. It was the Elk Beaver 100k which consisted of 10 laps of 10k around the lake. Mike and Sukhi had gone across to Vancouver Island to crew for her and on each lap Mike would update us as to how she was doing. The guys even ran a lap or two each to help pace her (though I think she actually paced them) and to keep her company as well. I will resist in building the tension by giving you the blow by blow account of waiting for each update but as people we knew stopped by at the stand we were all keenly aware of how it was going. In the end Ellie won the race, not just the first female but first overall, in an awesome time of 7 hours 36 minutes, which to put into some sort of perspective, my fastest marathon time was 3:10, Ellie did this then turned around and did it again and then did another 10 miles just for kicks. 100k at 4:31 minutes per km, astonishing doesn't even nearly sum it up.

To finish up the day I was going to see a very appropriate film that was made about ultra running. A friend had a spare ticket and had asked if I fancied checking it out, with little else to do and my love for anything movie orientated it was not a tough decision. It was a short film of only about 50 minutes and was being shown at the Vancouver Space Center which I had never been to before. XS-NRG (sound it out) was all about 4 guys who were attempting to run 180 km non-stop of trail down the Sunshine Coast. The Space Center looks fun and I will make it back soon to have a proper look around and the auditorium we were in was packed out which was great to see the support for a local film.

In brief this was a mega challenge with the trails being difficult to navigate and a massive distance to cover. 3 out of the 4 people dropped out before the half way point with only one powering through to the end, taking him over 40 hours to complete it. It was a funny film and a good look at ultra running at it's most challenging, with great moments of mini-arguments between the runners and glide being liberal applied to all bits that needed it, it kept every one engaged and entertained. One point I have to make is that out of the four runners it was the one who was seen to be eating cheeseburgers and drinking beer that finished and the two vegans who dropped out first, just saying is all :)

The really cool bit was after it was finished the director and runners got up on stage to answer questions about the film which gave you some fun insights in to what was involved. Even better was going for a beer after with them all and really getting the fun stories that didn't make it into the film. Thank Lara for the invite, a great evening.

I'm actually going to cut it there for the weekend as Sunday is a post all onto it self and I'm trying very hard not over do each individual post.

More to follow soon...

Bikes, Beaches and Beer

With having left writing my blog for a few days I have lots to catch up on, so in my customary style I shall try to be brief. :) Actually I'm going to break this down into separate posts so you don't fall asleep before the end.

As it had been more than a couple of days since I had last seen a movie I decided to pop out on Thursday afternoon and catch Date Night with Steve Carell and Tina Fey. Trailers had looked good and the movie was fair but I felt that it fell in a comedy gap. It seemed to be aiming it self at adults then it would switch to kid style humour the next and just felt it couldn't decide which it was. It was a little like Adventures in Babysitting if anyone remembers that classic but didn't quite make it. Good but not great.

With my purchase of my bike the night before, it was time to give it a go. Sukhi volunteered to cycle down to running club with me to show me the safest way downtown during rush hour traffic. It should be mentioned that apart from a cycle ride around Stanley Park shortly after I got here I don't think I have sat on a bike in about 16 years. Luckily the old adage proved true, it was just like riding a bike, and I set off in hot pursuit of Sukhi. I'm glad I was recording the route on my Garmin as I would never be able to repeat the route on my own. I was so busy alternating been gasping for air, dodging traffic and trying to remember correct hand signals that where we were going ranked very low on my lists of concerns.

There was one other concern that was bothering me and was progressively becoming more of an issue as the journey continued. To be delicate about it, let's just say it was in the saddle area that the problem was presenting. The seat I have on the bike is I think as bike seats go pretty comfortable but even still after 20 minutes I had noticed my level of discomfort rising dramatically. I kept finding excuses to stand up on the pedals and surreptitiously jiggle 'things' around a bit. And to add to this was the fact that even though we were peddling into a pretty strong headwind I was sweating so much that my clothes were rapidly becoming nothing but damp rags.

We did arrive without any major issues and the relief to step off the bike was only matched by my concern about having to make it home later, which would also be going up hill. I did walk around for the next 10 minutes looking like I had just stepped out of a western and I do have a huge new found respect for Sarah, Sukhi, Bill, Jess and all the others members who cycle down to the club before running, because as for me, the last thing I felt like doing was heading out for a run.

One big plus was that Ellie was back in town for a race (more to follow in next post about that) and had come out to have a gentle run with us and to say hello. It is always good to have Ellie back running with us and due to the fact that Susan, Terry and Karen were also tapering for the Vancouver Half Marathon on Sunday we all took a slightly slower paced run out to Second beach, which the slower pace worked just fine for me as I was growing more and more concerned that I may have had extensive bruising of the old man fruit.

While it was still a little windy it was a great night for a run along the sea wall through English Bay. The beach volley ball people have started to come out already and there was a good group of people enjoying the sun and sand.

And as always, when we have any kind of excuse, as soon as the run was over we headed for a drink. With Ellie visiting and everyone wanting to catch up it was a good sized crowd and we even got some friends from the Vancouver Falcons (running club for the serious/good people) to come have some drinks too.

In retrospect it probably wasn't the best idea to pair up the first night of cycling to the night I drink the most beer I have drunk this year but hey at the time it seemed to be the thing to do. Luckily for me, Barry, Sarah and Victoria had also decided to join in the new drink/bike program as well, so I was in good company as we set off amid slight concern that none of us would actually see another dawn.

This concerns proved completely unfounded, for the first 100 yards anyway. Just as I had gained some momentum and balance there was a small strangled sound of surprise from behind me and when I looked around I found a car bearing down on one of our group who was sitting in the middle of road with a bike wrapped round them. Whilst I won't name names, Barry (oops) had got his wheel 'stuck' in the rail tracks that line the island and had gracefully gone over the handlebars. Roadkill was averted and after some small running repairs and brushing off we all got underway again pretty quickly.

It actually was a fairly pleasant ride home, going along the creek with city reflecting in the water and dodging the odd small dog on the stupid extendable leashes I could see the benefits of cycling and I as for near misses of me hitting the side and going into the water, well lets not dwell on minor details. The uphill journey home wasn't to bad either, although I have a suspicion that this may have been due to the beer scooter effect. I do recall after having left Barry and then Sarah to finish my ride home, coming up next to another cyclist at some traffic lights. I'm not sure he realised we would be drag racing off of the green light but suffices to say I took him with ease, style and grace.

Overall a good first attempt of the journey in all. Saved me money and time waiting for buses and trains and also got to see some nice views of the city. One slightly perturbing thought though is the fact that on the way down to club it was a journey of 10k on the way back it was nearly 12k, might need to work on that return route.